David Merlini

David Merlini (born October 31, 1978) is a Hungarian escape artist and executive producer.

Early life and career

David Merlini was born on October 31, 1978, in Budapest, Hungary.[1] His mother is Hungarian and his father is Italian.[2] When he was three years old, he moved with his family from Hungary to Italy where he was raised.[2]

When Merlini was four years old, he became interested in locks and handcuffs and how to escape from the confinements. As a child, he was given an illusionist's pack, which founded his career. At home, he learned to build remotely controlled locks and fog machines. Around 14, Merlini attended night school at Turin's Circolo Amici della Magia, an illusionist school. When he was 17, he returned to Hungary, the country he regards as his homeland.[2] Merlini cited Harry Houdini, who had also been born in Hungary, as a major source of inspiration.[3]

In Budapest, he encountered In-Kal Security owner György Lasz who assisted him in doing yearly escapes starting in 1995.[2] At the Pepsi Sziget (now called the Sziget Festival) in 1995, Merlini wore a straitjacket, was handcuffed, and was tied to a flaming rope affixed to a helicopter. His aim was to escape from the rope and jump 20 meters to the platform below.[2] In 1998 in Budapest he escaped from a blazing car after he had been handcuffed to a Mercedes' steering wheel.[3]

In a 2004 performance, viewed by two million people on live television, Merlini appeared to be buried up to his neck in 3.5 tons of freshly set concrete after which the concrete cube was lowered by crane to the bottom of the Danube river.[1][4] In 2007, Merlini received the "Best Escape Artist" award at the 2007 World Magic Awards in Los Angeles.[5]

Merlini set the breath-holding world record in 2009 in Cannes, France, at the annual trade show MIPCOM after holding his breath for 20 minutes and 39 seconds. He received a certificate from Guinness World Records for "The record for the longest time that someone has held their breath underwater".[6] In 2011, he again broke the breath-holding world record in Baofeng lake, Hunan, China.[7]

In 2014, Merlini consulted for the Houdini miniseries and taught actor Adrien Brody, who played Houdini, how to escape from handcuffs while holding his breath.[5] In 2015, he presented "Houdini in Milano", a live theatrical show featuring real escapes, for the closing ceremony of Expo 2015 at the Auditorium in Milan, Italy.[5] In 2016, Merlini opened The House of Houdini, presenting a collection of original Houdini artifacts.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 "Illúzió vagy titkos tudomány?" [Illusion or secret science?]. Hetek (in Hungarian). 2004-09-03. Archived from the original on 2016-09-11. Retrieved 2016-09-11.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Balázs, Eszter (2004-12-02). "Escaping his dreams". The Budapest Sun. Archived from the original on 2016-09-11. Retrieved 2016-09-11.
  3. 1 2 "New Houdini wannabe escapes from burning car". Deseret News. 1998-10-30. Archived from the original on 2016-09-11. Retrieved 2016-09-11.
  4. 1 2 Walker, Jennifer (2016-08-26). "Inside the Budapest Escape Room That Started the Worldwide Craze". Atlas Obscura. Archived from the original on 2016-09-27. Retrieved 2016-09-27.
  5. 1 2 3 László, Szabó G. (2015-09-20). "Külföldre viszi mutatványait David Merlini" [David Merlini abroad takes mutatványait]. Új Szó (in Hungarian). Archived from the original on 2016-09-11. Retrieved 2016-09-11.
  6. ↑ Hache, Valery (2008-10-14). "Hungarian artist David Merlini presents his world record certificate". Getty Images. Archived from the original on 2016-09-27. Retrieved 2016-09-27.
  7. ↑ F_129. "Italian man refreshes Guiness World Record for underwater breath holding - People's Daily Online". en.people.cn. Retrieved 2016-09-03.

Other links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/2/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.